Category Leader - Health & Nutrition

Job Purpose and Impact

The Category Leader, Health & Nutrition (H&N) serves as the face of the sub-regional, customer-facing Research & Development team and works closely with the Category Strategy & Business Development teams to build and deliver a customer-centric innovation pipeline within the Health & Nutrition segment.

In this role, you will act as the central technical and innovation contact for customers, providing deep category expertise and translating customer needs into differentiated ingredients and application solutions. You will lead customer insight generation and product development activities in close partnership with Key Account Managers, ensuring alignment between customer requirements, market trends, and business growth objectives.

You will be responsible for driving the execution of category strategies, growth plans, and innovation priorities from an R&D perspective. Working collaboratively with Category Leadership and Strategy teams, you will identify unmet customer and market needs, generate actionable insights, and convert them into innovation opportunities and commercially viable solutions.

Additionally, you will bring the voice of the customer into the organization, providing regular updates on customer trends, project portfolios, innovation pipelines, and business outcomes. You will support strategic workforce planning by identifying capability gaps, recommending talent development initiatives, and contributing to training programs that strengthen the organization's Health & Nutrition expertise.

Key Accountabilities

• Partner with Category Strategy, Business Development, and Commercial teams to develop and execute the Health & Nutrition innovation pipeline.
• Serve as the primary R&D interface for strategic customers, providing technical leadership and category expertise.
• Translate customer insights, market trends, and emerging consumer needs into innovative ingredient and application solutions.
• Lead customer-focused product development projects from concept through commercialization.
• Collaborate closely with Key Account Managers to identify growth opportunities and address customer challenges.
• Drive the implementation of category growth strategies and innovation priorities from an R&D perspective.
• Identify unmet needs and emerging trends within the Health & Nutrition space and convert them into actionable innovation programs.
• Communicate project progress, portfolio health, market insights, and innovation results to key stakeholders.
• Champion the voice of the customer across the organization to ensure customer-centric decision making.
• Support workforce capability development through strategic resource planning, technical training, and talent development initiatives.
• Foster strong cross-functional collaboration with Marketing, Regulatory, Commercial, Supply Chain, and Global R&D teams to deliver successful customer solutions.
• Other duties as assigned

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Food Science & Technology or in Pharma with minimum 10 years of experience in Food & Beverage or Pharma industry. 

Preferred Qualifications

• Minimum of five years of experience in Health and Nutrition products 
• Proven ability to develop customer relationships and trust through technical knowledge and expertise